2024 Team USA highlights: Top moments from the 2024 Paris Olympics (2024)

Men’s basketball: They had to scratch and claw for it, but the U.S. men are Olympic champions once again. They beat Victor Wembanyama and host nation France in a nailbiter, 98-87, for their fifth consecutive gold medal. It was a one-possession game with three minutes left to play, but Steph Curry put the game to bed with four three-pointers in that final stretch. Steve Kerr called it “storybook stuff” after the game.

Men’s track and field: Noah Lylesis the fastest man in the world by 0.005 seconds. Really. Lyles beat Jamaica’s Kishane Thompson by an eyelash in what was the fastest 100m final in history. The entire field finished within 0.12 seconds of each other, and this was the first time we’ve seen all eight runners finish under the 10-second mark in a wind-legal race. Whew.

Women’s rugby sevens: Alex Sedrick powers the U.S. to a bronze on a last-second play. The U.S. trailed Australia, 12-7, and was deep in its own backfield with time about to expire. Sedrick broke a tackle and sprinted the entire length of the field to tie it up. She was left to take the conversion kick, too, with the team’s usual options off the field. Women’s rugby sevens was added to the Olympic program for the 2016 Rio Games, and this result put the U.S. team on the map.

Men’s gymnastics: Stephen Nedoroscik seals a team bronze. In the men’s gymnastics team final, the U.S. was in position to medal, but needed three solid performances on pommel horse to stay on the podium. Cue Clark Kent Stephen Nedoroscik, the U.S. pommel horse specialist who waited nearly two hours to compete on his one apparatus of the day. He took off his glasses, delivered as the final competitor of the event, and secured the first men’s gymnastics team medal for the U.S. since 2008.

Women’s swimming: Katie Ledecky wins the 800m freestyle yet again. Ledecky first took gold in the event at the 2012 London Olympics, and she’s owned it ever since. With her winning time of 8:11.04 – 1.25 seconds ahead of Australian rival Ariarne Titmus – Ledecky became the first woman ever to four-peat in an individual Olympic event.

Men’s track and field: Cole Hocker wins the 1500m in a shocker. The leadup to this race was all about the rivalry between Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Great Britain’s Josh Kerr, but Hocker had all eyes on him as he made a move on the final turn and gutted out an Olympic record time of 3:27.65. Middle-distance races usually don’t get as much love as the sprints do, but this one had the juice from start to finish.

Women's soccer: Twelve years after their last Olympic gold, the U.S. is back on top.Mallory Swanson delivered the lone goal in the 57th minute of the gold medal final, a 1-0 win for the United States over Brazil. That was Swanson's fourth goal of the tournament, while goalkeeper Alyssa Naeher maintained a clean sheet throughout the knockout rounds. U.S. coach Emma Hayes has been on the job for only a few months now, and said after the win that "love" got them here.

Men’s golf: Scottie Scheffler charges back at Le Golf National for his first Olympic gold. Scheffler started off the final round four shots back of leader Jon Rahm and was six shots back at the turn. But right as Rahm was starting to fall apart, Scheffler was putting it all together. He birdied five of six holes down the final stretch to produce a 9-under 62 final round and beat Tommy Fleetwood by one stroke. Scheffler, typically stoic on the course, was overtaken by emotion on the podium as the national anthem played.

Men’s track and field: Ryan Crouser and Joe Kovacs go gold-silver in the shotput for the third consecutive Olympics. The American duo continued its dominance in the shotput in Paris with medal-winning throws of 22.90m and 22.15m, respectively. Kovacs was in fourth place in the final round and unleashed an “emotional throw,” as he called it, to leap onto the podium and keep the Crouser-Kovacs streak alive.